Blue Jays’ Adam Lind looks to turn his luck around

Toronto Blue Jays' Adam Lind looks to turn his luck around

TORONTO — An athlete in a slump searches for any silver lining, no matter how minuscule. So Adam Lind lies awake at night and thinks about his bad luck.

Before Tuesday night’s game, which he did not start, the Toronto Blue Jays first baseman was batting .184 with a .273 on-base percentage. He had spent most of the season batting cleanup but had only three homers and 11 RBIs.

During batting practice Tuesday afternoon, he whacked pitch after pitch into the right-field seats, looking for all the world like the 2009 Silver Slugger award winner who produced a .305 batting average, 35 homers and 114 RBIs.

He insists he is not chasing those numbers, that he is focused on the here and now, and that he is feeling good, if not entirely confident, at the plate. But all those hitless games — 18 of the 33 he has played — are clearly messing with his mind.

“Oh yeah, I haven’t slept too well this year,” he said. “Not worrying, just thinking about pitches that you missed or balls that are [hit hard]. I think it’s part of what people go through in any job.”

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But most people do not do their jobs in public, nor do they wear a daily statistical name tag that observers use to calculate their personal worth. Of course, most people also do not collect a US$5-million paycheque, as Lind does.

Lind says he has become more aggressive at the plate and tweaked his hitting mechanics, generating more hard-hit balls.

“I’ve felt good,” he said. “Just a lot of bad luck. I’m sure you could ask anyone that’s struggling, whenever you hit it hard it seems like you hit it right to somebody. That’s why we have infield instructors and spray charts, and they know where to play you.”

The numbers suggest a somewhat different scenario. Compared to last season, when he slumped through the second half, he is hitting fewer line drives, fewer fly balls and more ground balls. His batting average on balls in play (BABIP) — all fair balls minus homers and strikeouts — is .205.

The average BABIP is roughly .300. Lind’s career BABIP is .295. Last year it was .265. In his breakout year of 2009, it was .323.

Add in the performance Jose Bautista, the No. 3 hitter, and it is obvious why the offence has represented a boat anchor for the Jays this season.

Most of the time, Lind has batted behind Bautista, whose BABIP entering Tuesday’s game was .167. That is 53 points below the BABIP of Albert Pujols, whose current troubles have become the reference point for all slumps.

Before the game, a reporter asked John Farrell whether Lind was approaching his “expiration date.” The manager was not about to take the bait. Lind, he said, prepares diligently, works hard and tries to focus on the things he can control.

“We’ve tried to look at matchups that are favourable for him to try to jump-start him,” Farrell said.

“We’ve looked at different spots in the lineup. But to get to the point of an expiration date, I can’t sit here today and say that that’s in fact the case.

“But at the same time there’s an expectation that we have as a team to put the best team on the field to win, and that can be taken a step further towards expectations for individual players.”

Farrell said his reference to “a step further” did not suggest Lind would wind up on the bench anytime soon.

Both Farrell and Lind spoke of sticking to “the process” and not getting dragged down by those ugly statistics.

Lind also insists he is not distracted by trying to match his lofty 2009 numbers. But he also says that year remains his reference point when it comes to assessing his hitting mechanics.

“When you look at film, that’s the film you look at, not necessarily the result but just what you looked like in the batter’s box,” he said. “That was a really good year and it’s hard to duplicate years like that.”

When he looks in the mirror, he says, he still sees a good hitter awaiting an inevitable revival.

“I feel like I’ve done pretty well this year,” he said. “I’ve just had bad luck.”